turn, turn, turn
by omens
Summary: Diving into the hourglass. What made her think that was a good idea? Justin/Alex
1. Chapter 1

**Name:** Chris

**Title:** turn, turn, turn

**Fandom:** Wizards of Waverly Place

**Genre:** General

**Rating:** 0

**Summary:** Diving into the hourglass. What made her think _that_ was a good idea? [Justin/Alex]

……

_to everything; turn, turn, turn_

_there is a season; turn, turn, turn_

_and a time for every purpose under heaven_

_- turn, turn, turn, the byrds_

……

Alex knows she's not exactly what most people would term 'good', not in certain terms at any rate, and she's okay with that. She accepts it.

Pretty much.

So she's not the good child, not the good student. She's still a good person.

It's what helps her not care about the rest.

……

"Okay," Jerry says, "special lesson today."

Alex and Max groan in unison. Special lessons are never a good thing. They usually end up with band aides and ice packs, and grounding on Alex's end.

Justin, of course, sits up even straighter (if possible) and Alex can see his eyes light up. She snorts. Nothing makes Justin happier than extra work. As if he even needs it. Didn't he finish his wizard training, or was she dreaming? She seriously doesn't understand her brother.

"Alex, Max, come here."

They stand in a circle (square, who knows) around their dad as he sets this big box that Alex has never seen before on the table. And she thought she had found everything that her dad had tried to hide from her by now. Guess not. The box is big and old, and really ugly, with crude carvings all over the dark wood and so covered in dust that when Jerry takes his hand away she can see the stark differences in color along the top.

He opens it up, and she goes up on her tiptoes to look over Max's shoulder when they both move closer.

It's a…

"Is that a rock?" Max asks. The same question is running around in her mind, but it's colored with disappointment, because lame, instead of the excitement in Max's voice.

So, she really doesn't get either of her brothers. But hey, guys are weird. Old news.

And she's really had enough of rocks…and stones. And anything resembling either of them.

"Well, since I didn't really sign up for rock study (Justin mutters 'geology' under his breath)," Alex says, backing up, "I'm just gonna-"

Her dad nods at Justin, who reaches out and takes hold of the back of her shirt. She stumbles, glaring at her brother once she rights herself.

"Alex, sit." She does, rolling her eyes for good measure. He sounds like he's talking to a dog.

"Is that the piece of the meteor?" Justin asks.

It just keeps getting worse.

Nodding, their father hands it over to him. Justin turns it in his hand, eyes big, and Alex thinks he's going to start cooing to it any second. Max makes faces behind his back, and she smirks.

Well, she understands Max some of the time.

Max takes it out of his hands, bouncing it up and down in his hands a few times. "Does it have powers?"

"Besides being dirty?" Alex chimes in, flicking a speck of rock dust off her shirt that landed there due to Max's bouncing.

Justin opens his mouth to retort, but Jerry cuts him off. "Not really, it's more of a catalyst for magic."

She and Max exchanged equally confused looks and she shrugs. She wasn't going to understand what her dad's talking about anyway, no matter what words he used. And he'll explain. Always does.

Or rather, he would have, but Justin catches on and starts to explain it to his siblings, all snotty and patronizing (she does know that one) until he winds up sprawled on the floor.

"Alex!" he sputters, making her grin. Not like he can actually prove it.

"Guys, pay attention," Jerry insists, tugging Alex against his side. She returns her wand back to her shoe. "This is a piece of a meteor that streaked across the sky when Merlin was born." He takes it from Max and hands it over to Alex. Nonplussed, she passes it on to Justin on her other side. "And it only comes around once every 7 years."

He pauses, looking at both her and Max in turn, expectant. Max has zoned out by now, but she at least tries to feign some interest. Tries and fails, not that it's her fault. That was just way, way anticlimactic.

A piece of a meteor? That comes around once every 7 years? Where's the interesting in that?

"Merlin!" he repeats, obviously trying to bolster some enthusiasm. His face falls and Alex feels bad for a second before she takes the rock out of Justin's hand and studies it closer.

"What's it do?"

Now that he sees he has an audience, he makes a big show of grabbing some dusty old book from the shelf against the wall and searches for a particular page. When he finds it, he lays the book down on the small round table in the center of the room. Alex leans in, pushing her hair over her shoulder so she can see. Her eyes widen and she whirls on her father. "It lets you see the future?"

"Not just see it," Justin clarifies, "but go to into it and watch it happening."

"No way." She grabs the book, and yes, she's reading voluntarily, but being able to see the future is pretty cool. There are all kinds of magical rules about time traveling and not changing the chain of events, blah blah blah blah. This however, this seems to be totally sanctioned and within the rules. "When can we go?"

Justin and Jerry exchange looks, and it sets off all of Alex's senses that usually lay dormant when she's about to do something sneaky, but screech in alert when it's being perpetrated against her. She narrowed her eyes and placed a hand on her hip. "What?"

"It's just that-" Jerry rubs a hand across the back of his neck and averts his eyes. She taps her foot a little, something she picked up from her mother that was sure to get him to fess up. "Only one of you can go."

Alex glares at Justin. Of course it's going to be him. Because he's responsible. Because he obeys the rules. Because he's good in all the ways she isn't.

Jerry swings his hands together, smiling. "So…Alex, Max, how are we going to sort this out?"

Both she and her younger brother swivel their heads towards Justin, who doesn't seem the least bit surprised that he was been left out of the comment. He merely stands there with his arms crossed and looks between his confused siblings.

"What about Justin?" Max asks.

Alex sees the faint tinge of pink on the faces of her father and brother and she narrows her eyes in response. There's something here that they haven't told her. Winding her arms over her body in a mimic of her older brother's posture, she moves closer to him and peers up at him intently from under her lashes. "What _about_ Justin?"

He fidgets and looks away, clears his throat uncomfortably.

God, he should never take up poker. Everything about him is a tell.

"You've already done it, haven't you?"

And he crumbles. "I was 11; Dad said you were too young to try it." Voice all a panic, eyes wide, Justin sits down quickly, leaving her to glare at her father.

Jerry holds his hands up, already trying to placate his daughter. "Now, Alex, you were only 9-you didn't even have your full powers yet. It was too risky to let you do it."

That makes sense. But it doesn't change the fact that they've had 7years to tell her about it…and they didn't.

Don't think she's gonna forget about that.

"So what you're saying is," Alex begins, and turns the rock over in her hands, "is that you two have been keeping this from Max and me all this time."

"You mean technically?"

She deadpans a look at her dad and then turns to Max. "You know, Max," Alex places an arm around his shoulder and pulls him against her side, "knowing the future would only take the surprise out of it for you. Do you really want to cost yourself that fun?"

His brown furrows and his lips draw downward. "Well…"

Spinning away, Alex beams at her older brother. "Great, problem solved. Now how do I do it?"

"Hey!" Max protests. A few seconds pass, when he seems to be running the idea around in his head, before he finally shrugs and plops onto the bench beside Justin and pulls out a video game. "You're right. Where's the fun in knowing what's gonna happen. Just bring me back a present."

Alex rolls her eyes, but nods.

"You can't do that, Alex." Jerry picks the book up and points to a long bulleted list on the page. "Bringing back items from the future is against the rules."

"Sorry Max," she quips. "Anything else?"

Justin steps up beside her, pointing to the list himself. "No leaving the place you appear at, no trying to talk to anyone-"

"I can't talk?"

He shakes his head. "You'll be incorporeal."

She blinks her eyes, face blank.

With a sigh, Justin explains what he means. "You won't be solid. No touching anything, you won't be visible to other. You'll be like a ghost."

"Well that sucks."

Justin chuckles, and that know it all smirk of his that she just really hates appears on his face just in time for him to tell her, "And once you're back, you'll forget what you saw."

Wait. Did he say…?

"I won't remember it?" Her head swivels between him and her dad, hoping for some sort of contradiction, option, 'even a psych!', she's not picky. "What a jip."

She looks at Justin, searches his eyes for the real story. There's nothing in her brother that can lie to her-not without giving in to his guilt and copping to it. And besides, even if he could somehow manage to not give himself away, she knows him, everything he is, and would be able to detect anything that was off with him in a second.

It's that old saying, keep your friends close and your enemies closer thing.

"It'll be okay, Alex," he tells her, his palm heavy on her shoulder. "You're won't remember, but that's okay. That way, you still have options."

If it were possible to sound more like an after school special, there's no doubt in Alex's mind that he would find it.

"Ugh, fine," she grumbles, swatting his hand away. "Just show me how to work this doohickey."

Jerry gives her the spell, instructs her to sit down and close her eyes, tells her to breathe evenly and calmly. "You're going to feel a tug," he tells her, "like you're being pulled, and when you open your eyes you're going to be 10 years exactly in the future."

She cracks an eye open. "Exactly?"

"To the second."

Her nose wrinkles. Magic should not be that strict.

"You get one hour, in that time. In ours, it'll only be about 3 seconds." Jerry squats down in front of her, grimacing when his knee groans at the movement. "No more than that, and then you'll be back here."

"How long before I forget what I saw?" She opens her eyes wide this time, and he makes her close them back (after she rolls them, of course) and resume her preoperational breathing.

"As soon as you get back here it'll start to fade," Justin says. "When I did it, it was only a minute before it was all gone."

Taking a deep breath, Alex grips her fingers tighter around the rock and says the spell, déjà vu hitting her harder than a two ton beam. She feels 6 eyes on her face, like heat lamps set on high, and practically hears Justin mouthing the words along with her.

"To see the future, far and deep, Merlin's comet, let me leap."

……

_2019_

Sucking in a huge gulp of air, Alex opens her eyes and sways on her feet. Magical travel doesn't really affect her anymore, hasn't since she was small, but time travel is new. Wizards in training aren't allowed to mess with time unsupervised, and even adult wizards have a thousand rules (literally) they have to follow when they attempt it at risk of losing their powers, so she sits down and puts her head between her knees until her stomach settles.

The aroma of perfume is heavy in the air and though it's not helping her stomach issue, she raises her head and looks around to see that she's in a bedroom. Her bedroom.

And, she quickly deduces, not just hers.

A large four poster bed sits against the far wall, under a stained glass window of roses and violets, with gauzy white ties billowing down from the canopy. Romantic. And not her. She makes a face and walks around, taking in the sketch pad on one nightstand, a little glass bowl heaped with jewelry, hair clips, pencils, bits of paper, and loose change spilling out of it. Has to be her side. The matching one holds a clock radio, a lamp just like the one on the corresponding side, and a thick, leather bound book with a pair of glasses resting on top.

Oookay.

This is a little boring, this sparse room with little clues about her future life, so she wanders down the hallway and into a spacious living room that looks much lived in. A tall shelf lined with thick novels and art books, broken only by an impressive stereo system, stands against the side wall, ending at a huge glass window, more like a mini wall, that showcases the entire skyline of a city she doesn't recognize. Across from the shelf is a squishy, comfy looking couch and chairs, the coffee table in the center heaped high with more books and magazines, mail in a wicker bowl on top of the pile.

All in all, she likes it.

A noise draws her attention and she turns to see the door across from the window opening.

And her future self walks in.

What she was expecting, she's not sure. But the 26 year old Alex walks with purpose into the apartment, leafing through a stack of mail that she drops into the center bowl without opening any of it. She sets down an enormous pizza box and hits a button on the answering machine that sits on the table by the entrance into the kitchen.

Curious, Alex follows…Alex, weird…into the kitchen and watches her, leaning against the doorframe. She takes off her really awesome leather coat and gloves and tosses them on one of the chairs, and Alex looks at her outfit.

Well…monochromatic isn't so bad. Not when it's an expensive looking black turtleneck, over the knee boots that are actually pretty hot, and dark, dark jeans that make her lower body look unreal.

She thinks she likes Alex 2.6.

The messages play out, not that she's listening. Something about a meeting being moved and tickets to a play, but somehow the setting of the table with paper plates and wine in plastic goblets is more fascinating.

And then…"Hey, guys, it's me."

She knows that voice. Right? Possibly, but, no. It can't be.

"I know its short notice, but I'm throwing together a little party tomorrow night and I was hoping you guys might be able to spare a few hours for your old aunt."

It _is_ Megan. Wow. How did that happen?

Then the rest finally wrestles its way through the cobwebs of her sizzling brain and guys? She said guys. Plural.

A door opens and she hears the light padding of bare feet on hardwood. Alex, the older Alex (this is gonna get confusing like whoa) opens a drawer and pulls out some paper napkins, not even turning around as she calls out through the apartment. "Hey, I brought pizza home."

"Half olives?"

No.

No. Just…just no.

With feet and legs that feel like lead, she turns around slowly, 'no, no, no' playing on repeat in her head.

And there he is.

"Yes, Justin," the older Alex says, "half olives. There's some mail on the table."

He goes to get it and she takes a brief half second to freak the hell out without distraction.

What is Justin doing in her future? Is this her place, his? God forbid they're roommates.

Coming back into the kitchen, he plops down into a chair and grabs a piece of pizza, taking a huge bite. "Who was that on the machine?"

"Oh, it was Megan. She's having one of her parties tomorrow night." She sits down opposite him and takes two slices herself, topped with pineapple and mushrooms. "And Matt called. Your meeting on Monday was moved to 11."

He nods and takes a huge bite of his pizza.

There's another window in the kitchen, over the sink, and Alex looks out toward the skyline again. She blinks because there is no way that that Big Ben off to the right.

Only it is. By a river with that big wheel thingy not far off.

London. Holy crow.

She lives in _London_. With _Justin_.

Possibly.

Having given her future self a good once over already, Alex runs her eyes over her brother, who has to be, what, 28 now?

Honestly, Alex would rather die than admit it to anyone else, (she's gonna forget so it doesn't matter anyhow) but age looks good on Justin. He's obviously just out of the shower. There are drops of water clinging to his black hair, and he still has that warm smell of steam and soap about him. Plus, yeah, he's barefoot.

"Are we going to Megan's?" he asks, sipping his wine.

So Justin is still the question freak. Good, sort of, to know.

Shaking her head, the older Alex stretches out, placing her feet on Justin's chair beside his leg. And he doesn't say anything, doesn't give her any annoyed looks. Which is weird to her, but the 26 year old Alex doesn't seem to notice. "Two hours on the Chunnel on a Saturday night? I don't think so."

Chunnel? Is that some kind of Euro talk that she doesn't get?

And where's the magic? Surely one of them one and they could transport them if need be.

Unless Max won, which would be just…she shakes her head. No way.

Justin laughs. "Good. I wasn't thrilled about the idea."

"You're just afraid Paolo will be there," Older Alex smirks, nudges his thigh with the toe of her boot. "With all of his artsy talk and flirty Italianness."

"That's not a word."

She deadpans a look that is all too familiar at him. "Still counts."

He rolls his eyes and goes back to his food.

In the midst of all the creepy comfortable silence, Alex walks around the kitchen, taking in the cookbooks and utensils and wonders which of them does the cooking because in her time neither of them are particularly talented at it.

On the fridge is a calendar with notes and circles, and things tacked on to it. They're busy, clearly, but most of the events seem like joint things; concerts, parties, movies.

And vacations too apparently, if the picture in the kitschy framed photo means anything. A broad strip of white beach is behind them, a hint of bright blue beyond that, and their both in summery clothes. The drizzle outside the windows really kicks London out of that scenario.

She and Justin stand there, his arm casually over her shoulder and hers about this waist, both grinning into the camera. Her eyes are rolling somewhat and Justin's clearly impressed with himself about something-she knows the look-and it makes her smile.

How big of a dork does it make her that she thinks it's…sweet, that they're close. Almost.

And then she sees it.

Her hand, the one not around Justin's waist it reaching up, her fingers tangled around his where his arm dangles off her shoulder.

Um, what?

Whirling around, she stares at the older counterparts of herself and her big brother, looking for…

Well, to be honest, she doesn't really know what she's looking for, but something tells her that when she does see it, it won't be as subtle as interwoven fingers.

Alex thinks she may be a little bit psychic, because it does happen. And it hits her like a right hook in the jaw.

The two of them finish the pizza, making light, normal chatter, and all in all she's beginning to think that maybe she should have let Max take the trip instead. Until the two of them stand up and start to clear the table. Alex leans over the table to get the cups, moving into line with Justin's body as he places the pizza box in the garbage can. Almost as if choreographed, they turn around and come face to face, nose to nose-thanks to Alex's shoes.

A slow smile curves over Justin's lips.

(He's the one facing her.)

"Hey," he drawls and she's never heard Justin sound like that.

Alex's hands slide up his arms and twine around his neck. "Hey yourself."

Somewhere in the back of her head she hears Justin's-her Justin, rather Justin from her time (yeah, that's it)-voice in her head screaming "Abort! Abort!"

Now she understands the concept of morbid curiosity, of not being able to look away no matter how horrific the scene unfolding in front of you is.

And it is horrific. Really, really so. Worse than all the Night of the Halloween Sorority Disaster movies combined.

It is. Truly. But she'd be lying if she didn't admit that it's also, just the tiniest bit, sort of…

Hot.

But it has nothing to do with the fact that it's Justin. At all. It would be hot regardless. Because the way Future Justin kissed Future Alex held no teasing, no persuasion, no gentle, kind words. This kiss was straightforward and to the point, the meaning clear as day.

I. Want. You. _Now_.

With no apparent effort at all, Justin ran his hands down her back and around her waist, hoisting her up onto the edge of the table as he moved his body between hers. She watched, transfixed, as her brother gripped her thighs and pulled her even closer-if that was possible-pressing her flush against his chest, and threaded his fingers in her hair, lips moving down her neck.

Alex, younger Alex, squirms, uncomfortable and flushing, not quite sure how to react.

Because she's in shock. Yeah. Shock. That's it.

There is, however, no mistaking just what's behind the blood rush to her face when she hears a low growl wrench out of Justin's throat when her doppelganger (of all the times for a Justin word to pop into her head) arches against him, and her hands slide up the back of his shirt.

He pulls away, and now both Alex's can breath. She takes in deep gulps of air, just as greedy as the Alex who just had her air supply compromised in the fun way.

She doesn't mean it that way. Seriously.

Justin's hands land on her face, and she can see his thumbs moving along the slope of her cheek. "I love you."

Alex stares at him, the passion in his words, the conviction in his expression and look at that, she believes him and can swear that she feels his gaze on her skin, hers, like flickering embers, like she's the Alex he's talking to.

A heat slid to her heart where it took root and burned, growing into a steady fire that caught and ignited everything under her skin.

Snorting, Future Alex leans impossibly further into him. "You say that like its news, Justin." He opens his mouth to retort, but she clamps a hand over his mouth. "Just shut up." Her mouth catches his again and Justin visibly melts into her, reclining her on the table until it begins to tilt and he pulls her back, both of them giggling.

And then, just as hands disappear under Justin's white tee shirt, the world around her blurs and she screams out an empty 'No!' before she blinks and sees her father's face in front of her.

She wants to see if it was some sort of trick. That's all.

Justin, the Justin she knows, stands behind their dad, face openly worried and the pest of an older brother she's known her entire life.

"Alex," his voice is low and calm and makes her insides shake, "you okay?"

Um, how about no.

……


	2. Chapter 2

……

_something about you i've never seen before_

_something about the way your hair falls in your face_

_- april 21, the donnis trio_

……

All Alex is capable of doing for a full thirty seconds after she finds herself back in the lair is staring at Justin.

Which freaks her the hell out.

Yet she can't stop. She simply stares and stares and stares at her brother until he begins to squirm and their father clears his throat.

"Alex, honey, are you alright?"

"I'm fine." She blinks, turns her head and forces her face into the closest she can get to a sincere smile. "I'm just fine, a little woozy though. That was…weird."

All three of them are wearing identical looks of skepticism, alternating glances at Alex and at each other, and she uses the momentary distraction to make her escape.

She knows an opportunity when she sees it.

Safely inside her room, she allows herself, finally, to panic because there is no way on Earth that any of that just happened. So obviously she had some sort of hallucination or stroke, or possibly head trauma which is cause for concern of a different variety, but right now she's mostly just focusing on seeing her future self and future Justin all over each other and why she's not forgetting it like she's supposed to.

There's like, a reason for that right? At least hypothetically.

Maybe, maybe not, but either way she's still here with that image pinging around in her head, knocking hard and causing the beginnings of a massive headache. Try as she might, Alex just cannot stop seeing it.

And she wants to. Really.

Honest.

(The fact that she wasn't altogether grossed out by what she saw has nothing to do with it. Nothing.)

There's a soft knock at her door and she stops dead in the middle of pacing, knocking into her desk, cup of colored pencils flying, and manages to say, in an embarrassingly squeaky voice, come in.

Justin's head pops around the corner of her door, smiling the teensiest bit. "Hey, you okay?"

NO!

Fortunately, that only blares in her head and not from her vocal chords. Her head bobs, which she figures is related to some instinctual survival instinct that Justin could probably explain to her.

But then she'd have to actually tell him what she saw…and there isn't enough magic or medication in the world to fix the problem that would cause.

Something must be off though, some little insignificant detail that only a person as perceptive (uptight) as her brother would notice, for he steps into the room and shuts the door behind him. "You sure?"

Oh God.

She backs up, all the while repeating over and over that she's okay, that she just feels a little sick at her stomach-that part is true at least-and that she wants to lie down. Which she does. Quickly. And turns her back to her older brother, squeezing her eyes shut and praying to anybody up there that's listening that he'll, for once, take a hint and _leave_.

Alex feels the mattress dip and she's shifted closer toward Justin.

Figures.

"Alex, you can tell me."

Yeah. She really, really can't.

Rolling over, she looks up at him, not seeing the brother she's poked and prodded and provoked her entire life, instead getting flashes of the older Justin she'd glimpsed in the future, all etched features and uncharacteristically easy attitude, the guy who'd looked into her eyes (well, not technically _her_) and said he loved her with all the sincerity in the world behind it.

Alex wants her brother back, her Justin.

The fact that he's _here_, close enough to reach out and touch, isn't helping her at all.

Because the 'touching' is part of her problem.

No, she's not afraid that some lunacy is going to seize control of her senses and force her to pounce on him or anything, but hey, better safe than sorry, right?

Her nose wrinkles. The very idea just reeks of Justin.

Bad news for her, he notices the expression she makes and lays the tip of his finger on the crease in her nose.

At once, all of the hairs on the back of her neck stand up, blood rushing to her face.

Damn it.

"What's with the face?" He removes his finger and now she can breathe. "You only do that when something is bothering you."

She rolls back over onto her back, rolling her eyes in the process. "What's wrong is you not leaving me alone so I can sleep."

"Fine," he snaps and then the bed moves again and her door opens the next second, closes back quickly.

Alex buries her head under her pillow, sighing and groans deep in her chest. There's a pain, a sharp one, directly inside her heart and she doesn't want to know if it's from breathing so deeply, or from something else. Something she doesn't even want to contemplate.

……

So yeah, she pretty much avoids Justin for the next few weeks, and they get to about the two month mark before he finally stops giving her those accusing eyes of his.

It isn't like Justin to simply let s thing like this go, especially when he doesn't even know the reason behind it. Justin likes to have reasons for everything. He likes order, and structure, and knowing the place for each and every thing he comes across.

That actually doesn't sound too bad to Alex right now, knowing the why.

Never before has a why really mattered to her. Not unless the why and the what are linked in a way that makes a difference to her one way or another.

This though, this makes a difference.

Her mood seems like its seeping through the rest of the loft, hanging a cloud over the rest of her family and even following her around at school. It's invading her life, which annoys her more than anything else, but frankly, there isn't a whole heck of a lot she can do about it short of forgetting what she saw and let's face it, that ain't happening.

That's when the idea of a memory spell begins to waft through her mind and when it settles, she realizes that it's the perfect solution.

Only…

What if she forgets, and then it really happens? At least this way she's forewarned, she's prepared.

And, most importantly, she can keep it from happening. Which is what she wants.

Seriously.

All the little flashes of memory she keeps getting when she looks at Justin aren't going to change that. Nope, no sir. She can see images of Justin kissing her, touching her, telling her he loves her, can see it all a thousand times and it's not going to change her mind.

Alex will not let this happen.

She loves her brother, even if she doesn't say it, but she flat out refuses to _love_ her brother. No way.

It's…yucky.

She thinks about Justin, and all the things about him that drive her up the wall and how she's always wondered what woman in their right mind would choose to end up with him. The possibility that it could be her…. It's too bizarre to contemplate.

Her family may be a little off, but there are some boundaries.

……

"Hey."

Alex's spine stiffens when Justin walks slowly through her open door. She sits up straighter in her desk chair, focusing all of her concentration on the sketch in front of her and not the fact that Justin was in her room and no one was home but the two of them.

"I'm busy, Justin," she snaps, not needing to turn around to see him flinch.

There's some silence, some muffled rustling of his clothes as he moves his weight like he does when he gets nervous or uncomfortable, some audible breathing. And finally, some words that she lets go in one ear and out the other, paying him no mind.

"Alex?" He knocks against her shoulder, causing her to jump and scatter her pencils on the floor around her feet. "You seem…jumpy." He looks suspicious, and she's too irritated to be defensive, glaring at him. "What's up?"

She plasters a fake smile, as sweet as she can muster, on her face. "The sky?"

"Ha ha."

He sits on the corner of her desk, his foot on the chair by her thigh, just ghosting against her and she swears her entire leg ignites from the inside, swears she can feel it, even through the barriers of denim and leather. She sucks in a harsh breath. When he notices, cocking his head to the side, she fakes a sneeze and it seems to work.

If only it was all so easy.

"So," he begins, using his Big Brother voice, "there's this thing tonight at the Planetarium, about the constellations, and I volunteered to help-"

Alex snorts. "Big surprise."

He grimaces, working his jaw. "Anyway, do you wanna come?"

Looking up, mostly because she's shocked, Alex meets his eyes. An emotion , she thinks, maybe a fear, passes between them on the words, hovering to fill the space between them, crawling along her clothes to cling to her skin like spider webs. She thinks Justin might realize something's going on. His face clears, and for the briefest of seconds she's terrified that he might know, but it must have been just her imagination. He's not looking at her any differently than what's become usual of late.

This situation is messing with her head.

Which explains why instead of telling him that she'd rather stick hot pins in her eyes while Harper gives her makeover than hang out at the Planetarium, she ducks her head and mumbles "No," in a small, girly voice.

Uh. She hates being girly. Just because she's a girl doesn't mean she has to be sappy about it.

Everything goes silent, until she can't even hear herself breathing. Then she realizes that she's holding her breath and chances a glance up at Justin.

His eyes, despite the clear gray color, are impossibly dark. Close to unreadable. She gulps, feels her cheeks redden, and Alex curses herself for turning into such a chick.

There is no explaining the emotions that riot in her heart at the feel of her heart beat increasing, skittering, banging inside her chest and she has to admit that the anger is fading, falling away under the weight of that connection, that undeniable bond that has pulled and pulsed between them, tying them together, since the very beginning.

Justin blinks, and the moment evaporates. "Okay." He stands, one hand falling to her shoulder for a split second and then he's gone, leaving her alone with the panic inside her head.

The door of the loft shuts, and she walks over to her window, watching as Justin steps onto the street and pulls his jacket on. He raises his hand in a wave at someone she can't see and her mouth works itself into a fond smile when she sees him beaming at whoever's on the receiving end of the wave.

A ripple of cold hits her, making the fine hairs on her arm come to attention and she whirls wand drawn, only to see her future self at the other end of her bedroom, glaring at her just like her mother glares at Max when he takes food into his bedroom.

"Wha…how…" She tumbles over her words, ready to believe she's finally flipped her lid. "Why are you here?"

Older Alex crosses her arms over her chest, walking slowly towards her, looking creepily scary. She takes a step back, hitting the wall beside her window.

"Why?" she demands, voice cold, all steel and accusation. "I'm here because you just destroyed my life, that's why."

Huh?

"And exactly how did I do that?"

She leans down into Alex's face, and she sees that the lighthearted, happy glimmer she had seen in the eyes of her older self is gone, replaced by white hot fury.

"Tonight, you were supposed to go with Justin to the Planetarium," she tells her. "You were supposed to finally accept what's going on. You were supposed to kiss him for the first time tonight."

Not quite believing what she's hearing, Alex rolls her eyes. "Yeah…'supposed to' doesn't really do a whole lot for me."

Really, her older self should know that. Duh.

"I don't care," she spits out and well, that was a little unexpected. "You are going to fix this, and you're going to do it now."

Yeesh. No wonder Justin and Max are scared of her.

"Look, I'm sorry you're upset that I decided to oh, I don't know, be normal and not shack up with my brother, but I'm not changing my mind. This isn't happening."

"Yes, it is." Digging into the bag slung over her shoulder, the 26 year old Alex (she's guessing) pulls out her wand and takes hold of her younger self's arm, fingernails digging painfully into her through the thin cotton of her shirt. "I want my world back, I want my life back. And I'm not leaving until I get it."

Well then. This can't possibly end well.

……


	3. Chapter 3

_**A/N: I live! :p Sorry for the gap, but I made the mistake of signing up for apocabigbang over at LJ, and I thought it'd be easier to just concentrate on that until it was finished. I didn't think it'd take me so long, but well, I'm a procrastinator. Stuff happens. **_

……

_before we talk of any repentance, try walking in my shoes; _

_you'll stumble in my footsteps _

_-depeche mode, walking in my shoes_

……

Alex thinks she's prepared for whatever comes next. At least hypothetically. She doesn't know exactly what's going to happen, but she knows that something is.

She just didn't think that something was a book.

"Um, what am I supposed to do with this?"

Rolling her eyes, the other Alex handed her the book, small and bright blue, a little battered but still in good condition. She opens it only to see her own handwriting, broken up with sketches and doodles, every page filled up by her.

"I don't keep a diary," she says, confusion making her head hurt.

Her counterpart sits down on the edge of the bed, and begins fingering the edges of the bedspread idly. "I started it tonight, well, my past tonight. Justin bought it for me at the Planetarium, a thank you for coming with him."

Alex sees that the first page has today's date on it. She looks over the words, but they don't feel right. It's like reading a novel. Her own (sort of) words don't feel like hers. She meets the eyes of the older woman and, even if it is her, they're not the same person.

"Why are you showing me this? I thought knowing the future was supposed to be dangerous or something."

"It is, but you're not going to forget what you saw so it's kind of a moot point anyway."

That… is interesting. "I'm not?"

She shakes her head. "Nope. You're stuck with that memory no matter what happens."

Brow creasing, Alex skims the page in her hand, emotions rioting inside of her.

_I kissed Justin tonight. I just had to know what it was like. What I saw in the future keeps haunting me, and I needed to see for myself._

"Why didn't I forget?" she asks, a sudden onslaught of desperation making her throat tighten, the words heavy and clumsy on her tongue.

They are definitely _not_ tears.

Another book appears, this one in much better condition, though the pages are a dingy color that would suggest it's a lot older than her diary. "This is our family tree."

"The family tree has leaves, not pages." She's seen it, heard it talk. Knows exactly (more or less) where her dad keeps it.

But the other her merely shakes her head. She recognizes that shake, it's the same one Justin uses whenever he acts all superior.

Apparently it rubs off.

"This is the Russo family tree. Everybody, all the way back to… well, I'm not sure really. I guess whenever the one who started it learned to write." She flips it to a page and hands it over. Alex sees a name that she doesn't recognize. Frankly there's a lot on the page that she doesn't recognize.

"Who's… Vidy…anna Tral-ie-very?" She so butchered that name.

"Vidiana Traleveri." Older Alex sits in her desk chair and crosses her legs, fixing one of those looks that grownups are prone to when they think they're talking to some dumb kid.

What does that say about her?

Nodding, Alex plops onto her bed. "Okay, whatever. Who is… that?"

"_She_," is said with plenty of emphasis, "was our great-great, whatever number grandmother being born in1698 would make her."

Alex whistles cause, wow. That's old.

"So… what's this have to do with me? I mean, us." She rubbed at her temple. "I'm getting confused."

An eye roll that is all too familiar comes before the answer. "She was mortal. And she had something called _immunisé contre la magie._"

No way that's English. "Huh?"

"It's French." (Knew it.) "It means immune to magic, roughly."

That makes no sense what so ever. Her family are wizards. How would that even work?

"Before you blow a brain cell over there," Older Alex quips, "just let me explain. Some people are born with an immunity to magic. Total immunity. Not a single type of spell or compulsion or curse will work on them, and they can't do magic either. Not even ordinary things that have been charmed." She pauses to take a deep breath. "It's really rare, and most people never even know they have it. Unless, like Vidiana, they marry a wizard."

Alex mulls that over for a second. It still makes less than zero sense to her, but hey. Her counterpart had to have come here for a reason, right? A real reason. "But… he had to give up his powers to marry her, right?"

Nodding, Older Alex continues. "Yeah. But ordinarily, the kids would still have powers."

Ordinarily? "They didn't?"

She shakes her head. "Nope. But all of Angelo's - Vidiana's husband - nieces and nephews did. So while they were trying to figure out why their children were completely mortal, they finally landed on the reason."

"Yeah." Alex stood up and looked at her older self, shrugging. "Fascinating. But I don't see what this has to do with me."

"It's hereditary."

Okay. Alex knows she knows that word. She's heard Justin use it more than once, usually when he's sniping at her over some trick she's played on him and then he goes into the whole Kelbo thing and Meagan and that's usually when she tunes him out. But what she does know is that it has something to do with family.

But that would mean…

"I'm not immune to magic," she blurts out. "I mean, I have powers. I could do magic before I could tie my shoes."

"Yeah, I remember," the older Alex snaps, and she's totally seeing now that this is herself. "But as the gene gets passed down, it grows weaker. So Vidiana's children couldn't do magic, but their children could. To a degree."

There's a lot more boring talk after that. Lots of it, mainly comprised of words like 'genetics' and 'chromosomes' and she beings to think that it's not her future self she's dealing with, but a female Justin that so happens to resemble her.

She gets the gist of it though. Magic is strong, and powerful, and it overrode the French thing until her family got their powers back, but it could still crop up every now and then in the lineage.

Another of those Justin words.

"So…"

She looks up, seeing an expectant look on her own 26 year old face. And no matter what Justin says, she's not dumb, but all this science stuff in hard enough to get her head around when it's in English. Its even more of a headache in French. "So what?"

The expectant look falls to a frown. "You don't get it?"

"Um, duh." She falls back on the bed, rubbing at her temples. "Why don't you just tell me instead of making me play guessing games?"

With a grunt, she complies. "Fine. You-well, rather we, are immune to memory spells."

Alex sits up, shock making her head buzz. "Really? But I can do them, so that makes no sense at-"

A whistle cuts off her rambling, and she snaps her mouth shut.

Future Alex chuckles a little. "It's trippy, I know. I've been there. Only I had to figure it out for myself."

Alex raises an eyebrow.

"Ugh, fine. Justin figured it out." That sounds more like it. "But just because you get the gene doesn't mean it's the same. Yeah, we can do memory spells, but they don't work on us. If Dad had known, he never would have let us use the comet."

And everything clicks into place.

……

The Planetarium is quiet when she walks in. Quieter than normal. Spooky almost. If she'd known this maybe she would have waited until Justin got home.

He's pretty easy to find. All she has to do is tell the super tall guy in the Columbia tee shirt and Darth Vader trucker hat (she resists the urge to snatch it off his head in defense of crimes against fashion) that he invited her and she gets directed upstairs immediately.

Justin's looking into one end of a pretty enormous telescope, fiddling with knobs and buttons. He jumps when he turns and sees her standing there. "Hey."

This may be the first time that Alex is at a loss for what to say around her brother. Maybe because he isn't just her brother anymore.

Before she left, the older Alex had told her, assured her, that she and Justin are happy together in the future. That it was a big fight, and there were a lot of tears and even more yelling, but that "I wouldn't have done anything differently."

"Hi." God. Her voice sounds so… girly. Gross. Clearing her throat, Alex walks over and sits on the ledge of the window that the telescope is pointed at. "I need to tell you something."

A look of alarm plasters itself to Justin's face almost at once. He hurries over to her and sits close enough to her on the ledge for her to be able to smell his shampoo. She gets hit with one of those flashes of what she saw when she went to the future. Its happened more often than she likes to think about. Her eyes drift over his face, seeing her brother flickering in and out in front of her, the line of his jaw and the slope of his cheek growing sharper with age. It's an unfamiliar face, but one she's going to come to know in time. Perhaps when whatever the other Alex feels begins to grow in her own heart.

"Justin, when I went to the future…" She takes a breath so deep that it hurts deep in her chest. "I saw something. Something that really freaked me out."

Justin's brow furrows, a deep wrinkle etching itself above his nose. His eyes are bright but strangely uncomprehending. Then it looks as if a light goes off in his head. He straightens up and gapes at her in horror. "Alex, you're not supposed to remember any of that. We have to tell Dad-"

"No, Justin," she stands, weaving her fingers into her hair. "Look, you just have to trust me on this, okay? We can't tell anybody about this."

He frowns. "Why not?"

She can't tell him. Not about them. Justin doesn't do well with the unexpected, and especially not with the not allowed. Or confrontation. Which she knows they're in for a lot of. Its going to be better for her in the long run if she eases him into this slowly.

"Because… it scares me."

Looking up at her from his seat, Justin studies her. He's never looked at her that way before. Not like he wants to believe her, but as if he actually does. He sits there, open and patient and so _Justin_ that she suddenly she wanted that future she'd seen so keenly that she thought her heart might be about to break against her ribs.

Which frankly, made her want to throw up all over the shiny stone floor.

Dizziness hits her with an abruptness that suggested her knees wouldn't hold her up much longer if she insisted on standing, so she sank down onto the floor in front of the window, her shoulder brushing Justin's knee.

He slid down beside her on the floor. "Alex, what did you see?" His voice is soft and low, and it makes her think of kitchen tables and wet hair, and further back to the smoky smell of a campfire.

Shaking her head, she focuses her eyes on the opposite wall. A huge poster of two colliding balls of light (like she really knows what those are called) takes up most of the wall, with several smaller picture along the bottom of what happened after they smack into each other.

It makes her vaguely queasy.

When she does look back at him, she can see just how much he cares. And not for the first time she wonders if he saw her when he went to the future.

His reaction must have been priceless.

Alex smiles, stands, and holds her hand down to him. "Come on. You can buy me an ice cream and maybe I'll tell you about it."

He regards her warily. Nothing unusual there. But its not everyday that she admits to being scared of anything, especially not to him. So he, very reluctantly, takes hold of her hand and stands up. She looks down at their joined hands, noticing for the first time that his fingers fit so neatly around hers that she almost doesn't feel them there. They fit together, not like two sides of any one thing, but like a lock and a key.

"You know, there must be a reason you didn't forget like you were supposed to," he says as they make their way towards the door. "It should be in one of the magic books."

Alex slides her hand up, wrapping it around the bend of his elbow. "Justin, not everything is about research." She tugs him out of the room. "Hey, let's stop at the gift shop on the way out. You can buy me something."

"I have to buy you a souvenir and an ice cream?" Justin tries to dislodge her from his side, but she holds on tightly.

She blows out a breath. "Psh, you love it."

……

Fin.

……

_**I know it sucks. Sorry. Frankly, I just sort of lost interest in it. *shrugs***_

_**Yes, I based the concept of immunisé contre la magie on 'pristinely ungifted' from Legend of the Seeker. But at least I'm admitting it. :) It just fit. Besides, given that the whole plot bunny developed from seeing those damn Flash Forward promos every time I turn on my TV, it's not really much of a surprise that yet another show concept popped into my head - I have been told that I watch an 'ungodly amount of television.' **_

_**And just for the record, I had this entire concept plotted out before Kat reminded me that Alex did indeed have part of her memory temporarily erased in The Supernatural. So for continuity's sake we're all just gonna pretend that that episode never happened, mkay?**_


End file.
